A Few Notes on Movies of the Near Future

BenderFan writes "The first review of the next Futurama DVD, The Beast With a Billion Backs (out in the US on June 24), has appeared online. And the reviewer liked it — a lot." (I hope it's as good as Bender's Big Score.) Read on for reader submissions on two other upcoming movies. The Day The Earth Stood Still (with Keanu Reeves, but also John Cleese) is due out in December, and a movie version of Philip K. Dick's The Owl in Daylight is currently being drafted by Tony Grisoni; the interview linked below is appropriately surreal.

Etienne writes "Tony Grisoni is a British screenwriter who has co-written several Terry Gilliam's films (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Tideland, Brothers Grimm and Lost in La Mancha).
He is currently writing the screenplay for 'The Owl in Daylight', based upon the book Dick was planning to write just before he died. The movie is produced by Electric Shepherd Productions, which is run by Anne and Laura Dick, PKD's daughters. Paul Giamatti is co-producing and will take the part of Philip K. Dick."

bowman9991 writes "Keanu Reeves' big budget remake of the 1951 science fiction classic 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' has all the right ingredients to be his biggest hit since 'The Matrix.' SFFMedia asks whether we are looking at another classic or a disastrous Hollywood star studded rehash? Now that the cold war anxieties from the original movie have been replaced with the threat of environmental catastrophe, will Keanu become some type of extraterrestrial Al Gore and ruin the movie?" (John Cleese plays Klaatu's giant 8-foot robotic pal called "Gort.")

I hope it's significantly BETTER

[93 Escort Wagon (326346)]

I thought "Bender's Big Score" was mediocre at best - so I'm hoping they've managed to recapture some of what consistently worked in the TV show.

IMDB score

[Toe, The (545098)]

On IMDB, it scored far better [imdb.com] than one would expect.

Re:I hope it's significantly BETTER

[loshwomp (468955)]

Parent is right on the money. Bender's Big Score only had ghostly traces of what once made Futurama great. I'm hoping they hit their stride again with the subsequent TV movies...

Re:wow

[Moridineas (213502)]

Wow, unless you're one of the writers, you really don't need to take it personally! I'm not the gp, but I more or less agree with him. I did enjoy Bender's Big Score, and I bought it, but I've only watched it 1.5 times. I've seen most of the episodes several more times.

It has nothing to do with the fact that the movie "played like 3 episodes" -- and you throwing that out there is a complete red herring as the GP said nothing about that. In my opinion, it just wasn't quite as snappy. Had some individually really good parts, but the whole thing just didn't seem as seemless. And no, to be clear, I'm not complaining about the episodic nature of the film--I'm talking about individual scene changes.

Seriously, I don't understand your reply at all. I mean, I understand fanboyism on the Internet and all, but why be so invested in whether other people like a movie or TV show you like? Other people liking or not liking it shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of it at all!

Re:

[spud603 (832173)]

Other people liking or not liking it shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of it at all!

By and large I agree with your post, but any psychologist/sociologist will tell you that other peoples' opinions have a lot to do with enjoyment (in a really substantive way).

Re:

[RockModeNick (617483)]

Yes, unfortunately. Thats why we had to listen to "My Lumps" over and over even when trying to change the radio dial, even though it was garbage to a half decent beat.

Re:wow

[Moridineas (213502)]

By and large I agree with your post, but any psychologist/sociologist will tell you that other peoples' opinions have a lot to do with enjoyment (in a really substantive way).

I suppose you're right at that. Seems a shame though--I think a lot of people would be a lot happier if we could just like what we liked and disliked what we disliked--regardless of other people.

Re:

[howlingfrog (211151)]

It has nothing to do with the fact that the movie "played like 3 episodes"

It has everything to do with the fact that it played like (actually) 4 episodes. I mildly enjoyed BBS in movie format, but seeing the episodes it got split into on Comedy Central, they were all above average and the fourth was superb. Then I went back and watched the DVD again for comparison, and I'm pretty sure what diminished my appreciation for it was that it messes with the traditional narrative structure--it's a twelve-act s

Re:

[loshwomp (468955)]

Nah, I've gone back and watched the original episodes on DVD, and they were much funnier. I don't have any problem with the movie format, per se, but in BBS there was too much going on, they were trying too hard, and missing their mark too often. I'm optimistic that the subsequent releases will be better.

I never saw any of the other movie adaptations you referenced and have no interest in them.

Re:

[neokushan (932374)]

Come on, the Aqua teen film was beyond BAD, it was terrible, more terrible than words to describe. And why get so upset at someone for not having the same tastes as you? It's not like it matters, he didn't like the film, you did, who cares?
Personally I agree, the film was all right, but it wasn't as good as normal futurama episodes have been. The Simpsons film was ok as well, but it wasn't as good as the first 10 seasons of the show.
The south park film I really liked, I don't know anyone that liked the show

Re:

[Tony Hoyle (11698)]

I don't know anyone that liked the show but didn't like the film

I love the show.. think the film sucked. Every 2 minutes (literally - by halfway through I was timing it on my watch) someone burst into song just to cover the complete lack of plot. But then I utterly loathe musicals generally.

Re:wow

[neokushan (932374)]

Well that's a fair enough comment I suppose. I'm not much of a fan of singing in films, either and I do agree it's the film's weakest attribute, but at least for me it didn't detract from the rest of it.
Incidentally, it's what I hate most about family guy these days (don't get me wrong, I AM a fan, it's just a gripe I have), Seth McFarlane blatantly wants to sing for a career and uses any excuse to burst into song...

Re:I hope it's significantly BETTER

[Spad (470073)]

My reaction was the same first time through, but after watching it a second time and listening to the commentary, I really warmed to it.

There's an awful lot going on and the plot is pretty complex; I really don't think you can get a full appreciation for it on a single run through - not that is necessarily a good thing.

Re:

[Moridineas (213502)]

Turn in your fanboy card.

I was all ready to write a longer reply, until I realize I had just replied to you already :-)

Calm down buddy--so somebody else doesn't like a cartoon movie you like--big deal! We get that you're a fan boy, and somebody else commenting on how they didn't like an aspect of the movie hardly deserves their being called a "moron" (and you also seem to think they are a fanboy too? I'm confused). I highly doubt you'd talk to someone in real life like that, so you might consider the same thing online!

What a useless review.

[Per Abrahamsen (1397)]

Not a single world about HYPNOTOAD. I hope we get another full episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad! It was possible the best television ever!

Re:What a useless review.

[by Anonymous Coward]

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD.

Re:What a useless review.

[Ian_Bailey (469273)]

I haven't heard much about new episodes of ELH, I'm just glad that I can catch the old episodes online [r33b.net].

Hey Hollywood

[bk_veggie (807894)]

Instead of doing remakes, such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, how about we take older properties, such as, I don't know, Neuromancer? Or maybe something newer like Cryptonomicon? And while you're at it, could you remotely stick to the source material, unlike that abomination you called I Am Legend? I think the only thing that the movie had in common with the book was the fact he was alone in the city.

Re:

[maxume (22995)]

The Cryptonomicon would never fit into a movie. It wouldn't make a very good miniseries either. It might work in a sort of 24 style format, but they aren't going to produce something like that as a one off, they want to be able to write more words and reuse the story next season.

I liked the book, but it wouldn't translate well, especially if you demand that the visual form stick to the source material.

Re:

[PCM2 (4486)]

they want to be able to write more words and reuse the story next season.

Sounds like Hollywood and Neal Stephenson would get along famously.

Re:

[Peganthyrus (713645)]

I know you're using it as a random example of 'cool SF that I'd love to see on the big screen' rather than a specific one, but I think the screen rights to Neuromancer are still in some weird development limbo. I know they were when Johnny Mnemonic came out - that's why Molly wasn't in that movie.

Also, geeze, I shudder to imagine how long a Cryptonomicon movie would be. It'd have to be cut down to just one of the three plot threads, and just a sketch of that; a typical movie really has about a novella's wor

We should make a list...

[mykepredko (40154)]

Here's my start at one (sorry no list because it ended up having too few characters per line):
Neuromancer (kudos to parent)/Crytonomicon (kudos to parent)/Ringworld/Rendezvous with Rama (I know but we've been waiting forever for it)/The moat in god's eye/Stranger in a strange land/Childhood's end/The man in high tower/Little Fuzzy/The moon is a harsh mistress/Starship troopers (one that doesn't suck)/The foundation trilogy/The caves of steel or The naked sun (erase "iRobot" from everybody's memory)/Red Mars going to Green Mars going to Blue Mars/The forever war/Ender's Game (I know that's been going on for years as well)/The long ARM of Gil Hamilton/Oath of fealty (I always liked that book)/Have spacesuit will travel/Tau Zero/Gateway/There will be time/Ensign Flandry/Dorsai/Berzerkers/Slan/The weapon shops of Isher/The duelling machine/The demolished man/The fountains of paradise/The city and the stars/Sun diver going to Startide rising/Way station

Please feel free to add to the list,

If there are any big hollywood producers out there, remember where this idea came from and I would think that you should be looking for an executive producer that understands this stuff so what you create doesn't suck (my rates are surprisingly reasonable).

myke

Can we subtract from the list?

[roystgnr (4015)]

I used to wish my favorite science fiction novels would be turned into movies. That stopped after they fumbled "The Puppet Masters" and pissed on "Starship Troopers". Seriously, "Starship Troopers", one of the few SF books that could have been translated for the big screen with little more effort than "tell everyone to read chapter N, act it out, then read N+1"... How do you screw up a coming-of-age movie with moral debate set among battles between aliens and powered battle suits? Why, to start you cast actors whose next "coming of age" events will be balding and menopause, change as many plot facets as necessary to parody a strawman of the morals you didn't like, and turn the aliens into animals and the battle suits into cannon fodder.

And you think they could get Mote in God's Eye right? Yeah, it's a tempting thought, but you know by revision 3 of the script, Hollywood would have turned the Moties into Ewoks.

Re:Hey Hollywood

[morari (1080535)]

And while you're at it, could you remotely stick to the source material, unlike that abomination you called I Am Legend? I think the only thing that the movie had in common with the book was the fact he was alone in the city.

Try "The Last Man on Earth". Not only does Vincent Price still have more acting ability than Will Smith can ever dream of, but Richard Matheson was actually involved in writing the screenplay. To be fair, I do believe that Matheson eventually left the project for one reason or another, but it was still a pretty good adaptation.

Quality

[ktappe (747125)]

(I hope it's as good as Bender's Big Score.)

I hope it's better. I didn't think Bender's Big Score was their best work. Certainly better than nothing though.

Re:Quality

[hedwards (940851)]

I was mostly happy because it was funny, considering how long it had been it could have been a colossal flop. If you watched the extra features, it took them a bit to figure out how to do some of the voices again, and there were some changes on the minor characters as well.

But, I'm reserving my judgment for when they get back to doing regular episodes rather than these movies, which will be a while.

Spoilers?

[antifoidulus (807088)]

It would be helpful if there were warnings about spoilers for each review....

No option to ignore "Idle" / "Entertainment"

[bipbop (1144919)]

Is anyone else annoyed that they can't remove idle / entertainment categories from display in preferences? Or do I have some sort of preference set that gives me an older interface without these options, and everyone else has already figured out how to ignore them?

The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves

[by Anonymous Coward]

Keanu will be perfect as Gort.

You forgot about Stargate: Continuum the next sg1.

[Joe The Dragon (967727)]

You forgot about Stargate: Continuum the next sg1 movie.

Day The Earth Stood Still

[rossz (67331)]

I must assume Keanu Reeves will play that robot since that's his acting style, anyway.

Re:

[owlnation (858981)]

I must assume Keanu Reeves will play that robot since that's his acting style, anyway.

Hey! I'm a robot, you insensitive clod! And on behalf of robots everywhere I'd like to express how insulted I am and being compared to Ikea Reeves. I've more acting talent in the little diodes on my left side, than he does in his whole body.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I just know they will they will kill the best scene and line (possibly my favourite geek moment ever on film):
---
BARNHARDT
(slowly, thoughtfully)
Yes -- that will reproduce the first-
order terms. But what about the effect
of the other terms?

KLAATU
Almost negligible... With variation
of parameters, this is the answer.
---
With a blackboard no less.

"Variation of parameters"...still gets me all warm & fuzzy inside. It'll probably be replaced by some stupid scene with a Mac that has the Apple logo conspicuously di

Re:

[ozbird (127571)]

I must assume Keanu Reeves will play that robot since that's his acting style, anyway.

Whoa!

A movie that needs no remake

[fermion (181285)]

Is the day the earth stood still. There are no significant special effects that need to be made better. There was nothing wrong with the story. The husband lost at war is as relevant at this moment as at the previous moment. The man who is in love with war and fear mongering and his money at the expense of his country is as relevant.

Ok, so an argument could be made that this is the right time to remake this movie, even if it guaranteed to be worse given the Mr. Revees has trouble acting his way out of a paper bag, and it just gets worse when he is acting across from someone that is truly competent(see A Walk in the Clouds).

The fact remains that there are any number of sci-fi horror movies that are more suited to his abilities, could benefit from better special effects, and are screaming for remakes. Simplying going through the MST3K list would net a treasure trove of easy money films.

Re:

[morari (1080535)]

Agreed.

All one has to do is go back and actually watch The Day the Earth Stood Still. The plot is still relevant, if not perhaps a little too removed from current parallels for the average moviegoer to realize. The special effects have held up phenomenally well, much better than any instantly outdated CGI will. It's a classic, and cannot be redone or outdone.

I realize that Hollywood has not been big on new ideas for decades, but recently it literally seems like everything is a remake, a "re-imagining",

Re:

[Rich0 (548339)]

The fact remains that there are any number of sci-fi horror movies that are more suited to his abilities, could benefit from better special effects, and are screaming for remakes.

Yes - I think that Santa Claus Conquerors the Martians [wikipedia.org] would be more up Keanu's alley.

Re:

[hackus (159037)]

Yes and then I hear they are going to turn it into a Al Gore vehicle and make the movie about global warming.

Good God.

Since most of the people behind the funding for Global Warming are the Oil companies anyway, you would think the whole "system" is making enough money off of that contrived research.

Want a free PhD? Just do research on Shell or Exxon's technology to reduce global warming.

Make me sick. If you are doing that sort of research by the way...

YOU SUCK IT.

Now where was I....

It would have been ni

Oblig.

[Grandiloquence (1180099)]

Oh, the fools! If only the beast had a billion and one backs! When will they learn?

Philip K. Dick Movies

[cblack (4342)]

Keep making them and I'll keep going to see them. I've actually added to my PKD short story collection to make sure I have the short stories any films are based on. I'm a huge PKD fan and I go to see them when they are in theatres in the hopes that they keep making films based on PKD's works. There is so much good material there.
I will say, however, that some of the short stories are not well-suited to a movie. "Next", based on The Golden Man SUCKED SO BAD IT HURT MY FEELINGS. Previous to seeing it I was wondering how they could make it a feature-length film. They did so by changing a whole lot, writing a new plot, and removing lots of the PKD themes. Ick.

Re:Philip K. Dick Movies

[morari (1080535)]

Blade Runner was great, but left out every shred of thought (Mercerism, Mood Machines, radiation poisoning, social significance of real pets vs. synthetic ones, etc) in favor of film noir. Likewise, Total Recall was a decent action film, but didn't manage much more. Outside of those, the Minority Report was poorly done and riddled with plot holes, Paycheck just outright sucked, and so on.

The only film so far that has worked as an adaptation of PKD's work was A Scanner Darkly. One big problem with it was that they left out much of the overbearing paranoia and resulting melancholy in order to instead highlight stoner humor. Though I admit I would have preferred that the ending remained more nuanced, as opposed to the ever-so-convenient voiceover/recap that films seem to like to push on audiences to counter their short attention spans.

The rotoscoping could have possibly been used to better effect as well. It only really seemed to truly add to the atmosphere on a few occasions. Otherwise the style seemed surprisingly tame given the tone and content of the plot.

Re:Philip K. Dick Movies

[Mr. Roadkill (731328)]

Likewise, Total Recall was a decent action film, but didn't manage much more.

(damn... got modpoints too. Oh well, there are other discussions...)

I just recently read "We can remember it for you wholesale", and ... well... yeah, decent action flick that I'll continue to enjoy, but the major twist in the novelette about the memories suppressed by aliens during childhood (and what will happen when they are recovered, and it turns out that he IS the most important person on earth) is what really makes the story. It seems like the standard PKD film-adaptation process is to leave out all the really interesting stuff and just go with whatever lets them do the action or film-noir or whatever kind of genre-flick they've decided to make.

Re:

[gmuslera (3436)]

Im a big fan of PKD books&stories, but the risk that they make to them the same they did with, i.e. Mimsy were the borogoves (pick your own example, there are so many of them), make me wish they never saw PKD work as something suitable for movies.

But im not very opposed to have original, great sci-fi movies that may end in great books after (like with 2001)

X-Files 2

[by Anonymous Coward]

Due in theaters July 25th.

Not a huge fan of _Bender's Big Score_

[otis wildflower (4889)]

I have to say that BBS was IMHO not as good as 2 good original episodes of _Futurama_. I was so psyched, and yet when I watched the DVD I ended up being more like "meh".

Sort of like my reaction to the revival of _Family Guy_..

(But _South Park_ is still battin' em out of the park if you ask me.. Lately it seems like they're trying as hard as they can to get Comedy Central to censor them into quitting...)

Disaster

[Graftweed (742763)]

...will Keanu become some type of extraterrestrial Al Gore and ruin the movie?

I'm voting for disaster. Let's take a look at some of the changes:

The original Klaatu - Played by Michael Rennie, a virtually unknown actor outside of the UK at the time, which gave him credibility as an alien when he stepped out of the spaceship.

He also had to be both menacing when delivering his warning/ultimatum, and compassionate as he goes among earth's people to learn more about them. Eventually he bonds with a little boy and his mother.

The new Klaatu - Keanu Reeves has received massive exposition, thus ensuring that people see Neo stepping out of the spaceship.

Also, he has the dramatic range of a cinder block.

The original theme - It dealt with timeless concepts such as our distrust for different cultures and our natural propensity toward aggression. Which is why it has endured to this day.

The people whom Klaatu represents aren't worried that we kill one another, their fear is that we extend our aggression as we step out into space.

The new theme - With the new environmental theme, apparently they are now terribly worried that we destroy the planet and thus ourselves. Or that we start littering space.

The original Gort - Silent, soulless, impersonal, ruthless and menacing.

The new Gort - John Cleese!

Also, I'm sure some of the original's somewhat Orwellian undertones of Klaatu's people creating a race of robots and giving them irrevocable power to control any and all acts of aggression will also be lost. As will his admission that their system, and their own society by extension, isn't perfect. Everything is black and white these days.

But hey, I'd love to be proven wrong since it's one of my favorite sci-fi movies, but somehow I'm skeptical.

John Cleese doesn't play Gort...

[rekoil (168689)]

Bad submitter - from the article..."IGN reports that Cleese will play a physicist Dr. Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize laureate who helps work out why Klaatu and Gort have come to earth."

Sigh of relief. I can't imagine Gort being played with any personality, especially humor - he's a world-destroying robot, after all.

(So is Bender, but he doesn't count)

Klaatu and Gort's Bogus Journey

[Chelloveck (14643)]

(John Cleese plays Klaatu's giant 8-foot robotic pal called "Gort.")

Where the fsck did you get that? Both the article and IMDB speculate that Cleese will play the scientist, Dr. Barnhardt. I've seen no mention anywhere of Cleese playing Gort. Cleese could make a good Barnhardt, if it weren't for the fact that everyone will see him as "that guy from Monty Python".

Of course, the whole thing looks like a train wreck in the making. Nothing good can come of Klaatu being played by Ted "Theodore" Logan.

I don't know...

[Ristol (745640)]

"Keanu Reeves was ill the day the Earth stood still..." just doesn't have a ring to it.

Keepin' it real

[Spasmodeus (940657)]

Thank goodness they've updated The Day the Earth Stood Still to preach about environmentalism, since a commentary on mankind's violent, destructive nature is no longer relevant in these modern times.